Go With Me - Average, Based on 4 Critics

AllMusic - 70Based on rating 7/10

70

Seapony's debut album Go with Me is a charmingly low-key affair built around simple but hooky songs, sticky sweet vocals, and chiming guitars. Pitched in the sweet spot between C-86-style fuzz pop and early-'90s American indie rock (though definitely more of the latter), they may not be doing anything new, but it doesn’t matter when the songs and sounds are so pleasing. Main songwriter Danny Rowland keeps things verse-chorus simple throughout, mixing up the tempos, varying the feel from song to song, and adding super-catchy guitar lines that stick in your head like barbed wire.

Last year, a Seattle three-piece known as Seapony entered the blogosphere at the pinnacle of a now cherished medium known as Bandcamp, with only a handful of singles (which they offered for free). These four songs provided attention for the band’s music – simplistic, slightly distorted surf pop – and would go on to be the foundation for the band’s full length debut, Go With Me, via Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art. The breezy, jangling rock tunes located here could easily garner comparisons to Best Coast due to their corresponding guitar pop mannerisms, uncomplicated drum patterns, and summer night arousal.

Simplicity is arguably one of the most important virtues of indie pop, and one that Seattle's Seapony take to heart on Go With Me: 12 songs in 34 minutes, all written in major keys. Pillowy guitars (courtesy of Danny Rowland), humble basslines (Ian Brewer), and airy vocals (Jen Weidl) all float calmly over uncomplicated drum machine beats. Light touches of fuzz and reverb give it an overcast feeling, making this summer record sound weirdly autumnal.

There’s something to be said for simple pleasures. Who doesn’t like a sweet melody, a quick two-minute pop song? Who doesn’t sometimes some music that just sounds good, that you don’t have to figure out and overanalyze and break down? Don’t we all need a break sometimes? Seapony thinks so. This Seattle trio has, in Go With Me, created a no-frills pop record start to finish.